Spear

About a month had passed, and life still sucked under the tutelage of Master.

'Don't get me wrong, the man's great, he could just be a little nicer.' I thought to myself as I lay on my bed in the pitch-black darkness.

After spending half a day, 50 hours, walking up that bloody mountain, Master taught me the basics of the sword.

The next day, I hiked up the mountain for 50 hours, again, and then was taught the basics of the spear.

It repeated like that over and over, as I learned the basics of each 'good' weapon, as my Master called them.

I was truly grateful for them, as they stopped me from worrying about the future, yet I also hated them, for they were so tiring and painful.

Just that night, after learning the basics of the rope dart, Master told me about which weapons I had an aptitude for.

The sword; it's a natural cliché for all protagonists.

The spear; it's the second most common protagonist weapon.

The dagger; it's by far the most popular protagonist weapon.

And, the axe. Apparently, I'm good with an axe.

Of course, that meant that I was shit with the rest, and that was proven just that day. As I swung around a rope dart, I accumulated several cuts, and accrued rope burn, something that shouldn't happen, no matter how hard you attempted to get it.

Truly, a one-of-a-kind talent.

By the way, Alexander was talented with every weapon, something that greatly pleased my Master in the book.

Anyway, it had been a month, and I had only just started to learn to wield a weapon. Master said that it was better to learn weapon arts before martial arts, for some reason. It seems counter-intuitive to me, but who am I to question my Master?

I closed my eyes, stopping my wandering thoughts, and focused on drifting away. Usually, that would make it harder to sleep, but being so thoroughly worn out made it easy.

---

I woke to nothing again, my room still blocking out every good part of the morning. I always woke up with the hope that I would have a window, but was disappointed every time. Sure, I technically saw 'the light of day' each day, but I didn't count an Illusion. So, I hadn't seen the light of day for a whole month.

The longest I had gone without the sun was 2 months Universal, so 24 years Earth time, and I was steadily encroaching that number.

I got out of my bed and walked to the door. I knocked on the hard metal surface, and a second later it opened.

'I hate this.' Due to my Master's rigorous 'teachings', my body forcefully awoke at 01:00, no matter what. It was ingrained into me that if I didn't, I would be beaten, and so my body had instinctually come to avoid that.

'I hope my body recovers once I leave... If I leave.'

In front of me stood my Master, a massive beam on his face.

Suddenly, Fire lit beneath my feet, encasing me with its warmth. The first time this had happened, I screamed aloud in pain, only to realize that it wasn't harming me.

It turned out that one of the abilities Master had awakened was 'Fire Clean', which was utility-based. As the name suggested, it cleaned the target without harming it, which made it useless in a fight, but useful in everyday life. It's also the reason that I don't need to get changed, shower, or brush my teeth.

'Truly marvelous.' I thought, basking in the flames. They licked at my muscles, healing them and burning away the lactic acid. They stopped a second later, leaving me by withdrawing back into the ground from where they came, yet they left me feeling brand new.

Once again, I was awed at my Master. For a human to have more than 1 Element was exceptionally rare, ignoring me, who was an anomaly, and awakening it was even rarer. You see, even if someone had, say, for example, Fire and Illusion, they may consecutively awaken the Fire Element, which means someone might reach their limit with just Fire, never awakening Illusion. They would never know, either.

"Disciple! Today, we start with the spear!" Master exclaimed, putting his hands on my shoulder. "Are you excited? I know I am!"

"Yeah." I yelled half-assedly.

"Good, disciple," He spoke, ignoring my sarcasm, "Because if you don't meet my standards, you're going to be toast. Literally."

He looked me dead in the eyes as he spoke, his face inches from my eyes, a Fireball in his hand.

"Of course, Master." I said swiftly, sweating from the heat the ball of Fire emanated.

"As long as you know." He said, withdrawing his face from close to mine, and snuffing out the fireball.

"By the way, Master, how am I doing in that regard?" I asked, eager to know. It would be useful information after all.

"Well, as of right now, you barely pass. But, I'm going to be bumping up my criterion, so if you don't do better, say bye-bye to life." He remarked with a straight face.

'Fuck.'

Master left after that, waving for me to follow, so I did.

---

We stood in a dojo made of Illusion, a couple of meters apart, spears in our hands.

"Pupil, watch closely. I'll only do this thrice." Hearing his words, I stared intently at Master's hands, eager to ensure that I missed nothing.

"Thrust!" Master thrust forward with the spear, putting his whole body into it and piercing the air with its movement. His arms went from locked at 90 degrees, holding the spear similar to how one holds a gun, to extended, carrying with them enough force to stop a train. It stopped inches from my face, and the air current blew up my hair, making it a mess that covered my eyes.

I quickly sorted it out, complaining to myself about its length, and stopped just as Master started the second movement.

"Block." He held the spear close to the bottom of its shaft, his right hand at the base and his left a bit higher, at solar plexus level. The spear was positioned at his waist, pointed upward away from him, reaching just above his head. 

He rotated his right hand, like rowing a boat, bringing it up and the spear pointing down to form a block. The motion was simple, graceful, and captivating, but I didn't let it distract me. There was still one left.

"Parry." From the position he ended the block, he did the same motion in reverse, adding on to it at the end. Instead of stopping in the starting position of the block, he pressed down on the spear forcefully, The motion created a small blade of wind that ran out of puff just before it hit me, but that wasn't what mattered.¹

'So cool!' That was all I could think. 'So, fucking, AWESOME!'

"Your turn disciple." Master looked up at me after finishing the motions, so I quickly got into position.

My legs spread into the same stance that Master wore when he did the thrust, one firmly in place at the front, and one placed behind, sideways to give strength to the motion. My, arms were positioned the same way as his, locked into an 'L' shape. The spear was held a little bit above my hips, pointing forward.

I thrust forward as similarly to his as I could, and besides the lacking force, I was proud of the motion.

I looked at Master's face, expecting to see something, but if he was happy or sad, he veiled it well.

I moved on to the next motion, a little demotivated but still as excited as a kid with a new toy.

My block was mediocre, that I could tell myself, so I didn't bother to look at Master's face.

Next was my parry, and although much better than the block, it was lackluster.

Of course, I was just beginning, so I didn't expect much, but there was still a tinge of disappointment within me.

Once I finished, I stood up into a straight position, my spear by my side, and looked at Master.

He gazed down at me, a stern look on his face.

"Master?" I asked meekly, shocked by the outcome. He was either meant to be proud or angry, yet I couldn't read his face. Keep in mind that over the month, Master had been very clear and very expressive. This odd mixture of emotion and vague unease was not nice.

All of a sudden, his hand hit my back, knocking me from my feet. I caught myself before I fell, rubbing my back in pain, and looked up at him.

"Well, I'll be, disciple. You're not half bad." Master began, a small smile lingering on his face. "For the first time, I give you 60 out of 100 points. Of course, that's not mastery, that's just how good you can be on the first go, but still. I had expected about 35 out of 100, so I'm pleasantly surprised."

"I'm glad?" I asked, unsure of what I was meant to say.

"Of course you are. 60 means a pass, and a pass means that you don't spend all of today on the mountain." He said, laughing at his own 'joke'.

'There was a condition like that?!' I thought, sweating bullets at the idea of spending a whole day on the mountain. 'Thank god I passed.'

"Now, pupil, I'll show you a second time. If, by the third attempt, you don't score over 80, you'll spend the second half of today on the mountain. You don't want that, do you?"

Hearing his words both scared me and drove me to do good. As he said, that was not what I wanted.

'I'm going to develop a trauma of mountains, I swear!'

________

¹ = Please refer to '3 Basic Chinese Spear Techniques' by Tao of Kung Fu. It is the basis for how I described the 2nd and 3rd motions, and as such, can aid you if your imagination struggles or my words fail to describe what I wanted to suggest.